Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology used in a wireless endoscope system.
Description of Related Art
In recent years, endoscope devices that can capture an image of a subject within a body cavity or a duct by an elongated insertion unit inserted into the body cavity or the duct and cause the acquired image of the subject to be capable of being observed on a monitor have been widely used. In such endoscope devices, an endoscope having the insertion unit is connected to an external device through a light-guide cable which guides illumination light generated by a light source device to the endoscope, or a signal cable through which a video obtained by the endoscope is transmitted to a video processor. Therefore, a movement range of the endoscope is limited and the operability of the endoscope is interfered.
Thus, a wireless endoscope system which wirelessly transmits a video obtained by the endoscope has been considered. In the wireless endoscope system, the limitation of the movement range of the endoscope is mitigated and the operability is improved.
In the wireless endoscope system, image data is often transmitted in a compressed state because the transmission band is limited. A function of saving a video of a specific portion designated by a user operating an operation switch as a still image, i.e., a release function, is used to confirm the video of the specific portion after the endoscopic procedure. This still image is saved as data used for reviewing the specific portion in detail. Thus, it is necessary for the still image to have higher resolution than a video at the time of normal observation.
Therefore, the transmission of still-image data used for saving a high-resolution still image at the time of using the release function is necessary in addition to transmission of compressed moving-image data in the normal observation. This still-image data is still-image data having a lower compression rate than moving-image data or uncompressed still-image data.
In Japanese Patent No. 3247349, a moving-image-monitoring device which simultaneously transmits moving-image video data and selected still-image video data through the same transmission path is disclosed.